they are trapping chinook salmon near mercet in an effort to restore these fish to a river that is being brought back to life. >> this is an important milestone in the san joaquin restoration program. >> executive director of the program explains this is part of a decades' long effort to restore the san joaquin river which used to be home waters for chinook salmon. they say the spring is a mondays runs. >> you could run across their backs and not touch the water. >> this is that part of the san joaquin now. it's dried up and been like this for most of the past 60 years. ever since the dam was built in the 1940s and to divert the river water into channels to irrigate central valley farms. the fish weren't that big consideration. but in 1988 the salmon caught a break. they led a coalition of environmentalists and fishermen in a lawsuit against the government run dam and the water district and in 2006, they reached a settlement. now the first salmon are being trucked around the obstacles 160 miles upstream to be reintroduced into the river below the dam. because by next spring, scientists b